Attaining Goals…a Recipe for Action and In Life…
“The belief that you can is what propels one to do.”
My quote above all starts with one cup of faith, one cup of belief, a dash of hope and a desire of what you want (goal)!
As I was taking my usual early morning walk, I decided to test myself on my discipline of keeping my goals in check once I’ve made them. So I selected heart-searching. You see, my daughter and I have been collecting hearts for as long as we can remember, and we both see them everywhere!
They hover overhead in the clouds, beneath our feet in rocks and puddles, and so forth; we see them in the most random places and always feel they show up when we need them most.
So as I increased my walking speed, I set my goal to be that I would have to find one heart before returning to my Jeep. It seemed like a simple enough objective and one that I felt I needed this particular morning. Well, as I walked and jogged, I found much more than just a heart.
Here were my findings:
Faith + Belief = Action
It didn’t take long before self-judgment began to creep in. As soon as I chose heart-searching as my goal, I questioned myself. I thought, “Is this goal too easy; did I pick something I knew I would win at?” My mind then drifted to the differences between faith and belief.
I then thought about how faith is placing our belief on something bigger then us, and belief is placing it on ourselves…belief is more internally driven, similar to hope.
We can hope all day long, but faith is more global and comes blindly, not knowing the “how” behind it. It requires courage, being bold and facing fears. It’s all important and necessary but distinctly different.
Precise Focus
As much as we may hate to admit it, goal-setting is critical to helping accomplish tasks in life. As I strolled up and down the hills, I noticed that I became so focused on my goal of finding what had now become my heart.
I almost became absent to the other runners, bicyclists, and even found myself repeating a new mantra I had created. You will always find what you are looking for…
You will always find what you are looking for…
You will always find what you are looking for…
We Negotiate & Compromise Ourselves
As I continued to walk and scan the grounds, I glanced up and noticed I was halfway to my Jeep, I slightly panicked as the brief thought of failure hit me! “What if I don’t find a heart?” I asked myself. I quickly returned to my mantra. You will always find what you are looking for…
My vision spread out wider, and I found myself looking at objects somewhat resembling hearts…but not really. There were some pebbles with missing tales and some blades of grass that I suppose on a very dark night might look like a heart somehow, but again, not really.
We compromise and negotiate with ourselves when the pressure is on and we think we might lose. The pressure was on, and there were no hearts to be found.
Never, ever give up!
I continued on my path, repeating my mantra, You will always find what you are looking for… I consciously blocked all negative thoughts from entering my mind and never gave myself permission to fail. I was GOING to find ONE HEART!
Suddenly, hidden in the gravel, buried deep below my new birthday sneakers was at last my HEART! Ahhh, my faith and belief had yielded my truth! I was done! My mantra had proven my truth, as I had thought.
My goal had been to find one heart upon returning to my Jeep, and I had accomplished the task and fulfilled my goal! You would think, right?
Well, as I bent forward to pick up my heart, I quickly realized life is not just about meeting our goals and moving on; it truly is much more!
Live in abundance
As I walked towards my Jeep with my heart in hand, I had a skip in my step and had decided my day was complete! I now had another heart ready to add to my collection. Suddenly, without any warning, I found myself surrounded with hearts! How could this be?
All I wanted was one! Here I found abundance, to my left and to my right, hearts abound! They were in the rocks, grass, and gravel!
It didn’t take long for me to realize the power of thought and the influence we have on the world around us. Here I had set my goal for one heart, and when I set out to find one believing I would, believing being the key word here and having faith in something bigger then me, I set the course to meet my goal.
Once the combination of all of these ingredients was in play, there was no way to fail. Call it faith, the universe, God, or whatever inspires you, I know the world belongs to me and you, and we have all been placed here with great purpose and to live abundantly!
So my lesson here is that sometimes in life, we must have “blind faith” (I say blind because we sometimes have no choice). Life will often times force us to move forward without knowing the “how”; just believing in ourselves and putting faith in something bigger then us will have to do.
So set your desire, also known as a goal, and follow your own yellow brick road of life. Trust that even after you’ve hit your mark, it’s far from over; you will have only just begun! Always, always expect to live in abundance, and never think yourself so small as to believe you are not worthy of more!
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